Goodreads

Emerson: The Poet is One Chasing Beauty

Even when Emerson says something I disagree with–which is often–I still like the way he says it. Here, I like both what he says and the way he says it.

[The poet] pursues a beauty, half seen, which flies before him. The poet pours out verses in every solitude. Most of the things he says are conventional, no doubt; but by and by he says something which is original and beautiful. That charms him. He would say nothing else but such things.